Take him to court.

Perhaps what I have said in the past which is what's usually said, that you can't force a seller to sell but you can make them wish they had, needs a little tweaking; in a construction build where an owner refuses or can't sell for some issue, it comes down to the equity held in the property, a builder holds the largest lien, with the lender, and a builder can certainly force sale by court order.

That wouldn't mean you necessarily did anything wrong, but spending time in court to find the answer to that question isn't where you want to spend your time.

The owner filed for Chapter 13 back in 2020 and I've read some of the court documents to get myself familiarized with their situation.

Does Calif. court allow the injured party to go after you personally if the dog consumes someone?

If you didn't have a SD and had to take her to court I would suggest just eating the cost yourself, but considering you had the deposit to pull from I think you were in the right. 

@Mauricio ParrariosI don’t know if the rule applies to landlords, but I wouldn’t want to fight it in court......

When I asked my existing UK tax accountant about using a US LLC to invest in property she sent me a law firm's review of a recent Supreme Court case on UK tax treatment of US LLCs that didn't fully clarify the issue (!?!?!).

IF you can prove that prior repairs have been done, you may have a case in small claims court. 

At the end of the day the buyers decided to settle out of court for about 1/2 the remediation cost vs going to court and potentially getting nothing.